Introduction

Abstract

Latin American countries have historically been young societies, with children and young adults making up a substantial portion of their popula tions. In the colonial and postindependence eras, the high percentage of children and youth commanded interest from government reformers, military regimes, and social welfare organizations as a potential source of political and social unrest (see Kuznesof, 2005, and contributors to Hecht, 2002). In recent years, the proportion that is under age 25, which we broadly term youth, hovers at just over half of the population both regionally and in nearly every nation (CEPAL/ECLAC, 2007: 26). Youth movements, including the student protests of the 1960s and 1970s, have played critical roles in the shaping of modern history in the region. Sometimes such protests have had tragic ends, as in the case of the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City. Military regimes in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile from the 1960s through the 1980s specifically targeted young women and men?whether or not they were actually involved in political activism?for persecution and disappearance. A generation of youthful participants in the region's political culture was devastated in these nations. In other cases, as among the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, young men and women were key players in more successful revolutionary uprisings and efforts toward democratic trans formation. The involvement of Latin American youth has had a profound influence on the tenor and demands of political and cultural movements in the region in recent times.